


No Glory But Gods

by bug_from_space



Series: The Sounds of Passers-By [1]
Category: Greek and Roman Mythology, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Xena: Warrior Princess
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Established Relationship, F/M, Guilt, M/M, Modern Era, Polyamory, War, but with elements of the others, it's not clearly one interpretation of them, like it was largely based off the Xenaverse and the myths, prose
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-14
Updated: 2019-04-14
Packaged: 2020-01-13 12:48:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18469309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bug_from_space/pseuds/bug_from_space
Summary: Between the three of them, both everything and nothing has changed. They love each other, and that's enough.





	No Glory But Gods

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so here I present my newest whim. Here I give you my OT3 gods, could potentially be part of the same continuity of 200 km/hour stuff, but there's no direct references so, it's easily readable on it's own. If you want faces, I kind of thought the Xena faces, but it's not exactly solid. Enjoy!

I.

Ares is exhausted. Of fighting, of combat, of the senseless killing that war has become. He doesn’t charge onto a battlefield with troops anymore. (No one even prays to him anymore). It’s no longer about who has the blessing of a god, or the better tactics. It’s become who has the more powerful weapons. 

There is no glory left in battle. No, there hasn’t been any honor in millenia. Now children, mothers, and fathers never see the face of their killers as they go up in explosions. Ares picks his way across the rubble and debris of another apartment building/school/business, and digs up the few civilians who have survived. 

II.

Aphrodite sees Ares across the street-the airplane terminal- the room and asks “Come home?” He doesn’t. He never does. He’s only ever passing through on his way to the next place.

“When the war is over.” But the war(s) never finish, and Ares never comes home to her and Hephaestus. It's been so many decades since the three of them were together, and whole. By now the words are well worn, and she can see how it hurts him.

“And when the innocents are safe, I know.” 

III.

She’s tired now. Bags under her eyes that are covered up in makeup. She can’t not appear stunning, society would never allow it. Her husband kisses her, and wipes away her tears, and says “You’re as beautiful as when I met you.” It’s a lie, but sometimes it’s a comfort. Sometimes it’s nice to think that she is still beautiful, and that they haven’t fallen that far.

She watches girls who smile emptily at boys and gently go their purses to remind them of the pepper spray hidden. She holds her keys clenched in a fist when she walks home, and wonders where the love went, when did this become commonplace and habit? (Why did she ever allow it to get this bad?)

IV.

Sometimes a little girl comes up to her, and the sweet child will look up a her and call her pretty, and for a moment, she feels young. She’ll bend down and unclasp a necklace/bracelet/ring, handing it to the child with a sad smile. Hephaestus knows what she does, he makes endless pieces of jewelry for his wife. He’ll make enough pieces that she can give one to every child who approaches her with an innocent compliment.

And on the occasional day Aphrodite watched with a kind smile as a couple adopt a child, and as friends make themselves their own families out of each other. It’s proof that some love still exists in the world. It’s proof that her domain is not yet hopelessly lost to the modern era.

V.

Hephaestus doesn’t make weapons anymore. He hasn’t since the atomic bomb, when science and war collided and mutated into this senseless killing. He saw the way Ares’ heart broke when such atrocities happened. Instead he makes toys, and jewelry, and furniture. He smiles at the people that come into his shop, and he tells his wife he loves her. 

Sometimes he sees the sword on display in a museum and remembers when he was the best of all smiths. In those moments he recalls when the weapons he made were the most prized things. But now war was fought with chemicals and guns, and no one ever saw their murderers. There was never any beauty in the weapons.

VI.

Sometimes Hephaestus sees Ares on the television, and in those moment his heart breaks for his lover. He sees how Ares is haggard, and tired of his work. (He wants Ares to come home). There was supposed to be three of them. He watches and sees the way the weapons in war morph into something that should never have been created. How the atomic bomb became the hydrogen bomb, and he fears for his lover, and for the future of Earth. He and Ares both, have watched the ways of man shift and change. 

He notices the way Hermes looks at him, like he’s never sure how Hephaestus could leave behind his forge, and his fire. He doesn’t see the way Hephaestus’ hands are scarred and stained with blood. (Hermes who’s never seemed more alive than chasing adventure through the streets of New York-Tokyo-Seoul). He could never understand losing your passion for the art.

VII.

There had been a period time where they had been happy. Not like when they had been gods, and they have relished in the beauty of divinity; but there had been a time. Aphrodite had still smiled at the two of them, and Ares would play swords with the neighborhood boys, and Hephaestus was still the greatest swordsmith. But that time had come and gone.

Now the neighborhood boys had grown and gone to war to die for their country. Aphrodite watches Ares through a screen and she holds Hephaestus close, a reminder that at least he is still there. 

VIII.

Sometimes when Ares is boarding another flight he pauses, and for a split second he dreams of going home. Home to the warmth of his lovers, and to leave behind this endless war that’s never ending. He doesn’t enjoy it anymore. It was no longer something to be proud of. He can see the way the other gods look at him. Like he’s something evil, and say how he must love this modern era where half the map is war-torn. 

“Isn’t that what you always wanted?”

~~“No, no, this isn’t what I wanted. This is not honourable. This is numb.”~~

XI.

Aphrodite preaches on self-love from the flower store kiosk, where she gets people to buy something for themselves. Aphrodite sees the makeup store across the street using her name for false advertising, and she comforts the women who never can quite meet their standards. She calls them beautiful a and passes them a red daisy, or a hibiscus, or a burgundy rose

Sometimes she sees Athena who always seems so disappointed in her, and Aphrodite laughs and smiles and offers her family a flower. (They want to think she’s shallow. They like to think she hasn’t changed). Aphrodite just watches her family pass by, never saying anything. She has enough to be content.

X.

The truth is this: one day Ares boards a plane home. Aphrodite welcomes her lover home with open arms, and she spends the night between the two men she loves more than her once-power. Hephaestus spends hours in careful conversation with Ares, and nights silently grateful his lover is immortal.

The truth is this: they are happy. No one else wants to-- or tries to understand. But they are, and when Ares returns to the war (it’s his domain, however twisted it may be), he promises to return. With him he carries a pendant with a flower petal tucked inside. This time he knows that there are those who love him, and who he loves. They get to be happy.


End file.
